Morning Focus – Thursday October 24th

Today’s Morning Focus began with a dicussion on employment in the county, in the wake of this week’s announcement by Molex that it’s to close it’s facility in Shannon, resulting in the loss of 500 jobs.

Gavin was joined by Clare Independent TD Michael Harty, and also by Clare Fine Gael TD Joe Carey, who was openly critical of the performance of his own government in this area, including party colleague and Minister of State, Pat Breen.

You can listen to that interview below.

CONTINUE READING BELOW

Next, Gavin was joined by prominent campaigner Fr. Peter McVerry, who has stated this week that the government’s policies on homelessness are simply not working. He’s calling for the delivery of social housing to be ramped up, and for the government to re-think its plans, but admits that’s unlikely given to the likelihood of an election in the near future.

Ger Hoey, Chairman of Clare Bus, joined us to talk about what he says is a threat to their services. The National Transport Authority is to put the contract for the delivery of Clare Bus services out to a competitive tender. Ger was critical of the NTA and of local politicians, as you can hear below:

After the news, we discussed Halloween, and children getting overhyped for the holidays, with Dr. Toby Sachsenmaier. You can hear her advice below:

Next, a trip down memory lane at Ennistymon Community Hospital.

The team there have recently roped in the support of a host of community and voluntary groups to help them convert disused parts of the facility into a replica of a busy streetscape – complete with coffee shop, cinema, pub, post office and more.

They’ve called it ‘Memory Lane’ and Morning Focus Producer Fiona McGarry got a tour with Director of Nursing, Claire Collier.

Finally, Siobhan Mulcahy joined us with our regular arts preview.

Remember, you can contact Morning Focus any time on [email protected], and we’ll be back on air on Friday from 9:00.